Snow, snow, go away, come back another day…

The snow has affected the football world too, with a few games being called off during the week. For us, the main postponement was, of course, the Cardiff game. This has been rescheduled for Monday 16th February and may give Arshavin hat extra week to gain some fitness.

Talking about the Russian, according to the BBC, he is included in the squad to face Sp*rs on Sunday. Although they have published a 19 man squad... as follows:

It will be interesting to see how Arsene handles the defence, with Toure, Djourou and Gallas all fit.

There has been a bit more reaction to the whole Arshavin saga, with many clubs querying why it was allowed. Arsene has explained recently that everything was completed prior to the deadline.

“It was done in the last minute, but regularly. We have nothing to hide. We just did the deal very late in the afternoon, sent it to the Premier League and they ratified it. If the deal was not right we would have cancelled the transfer and accepted it. We have done nothing wrong. In every transfer window you have at least ten or 15 clubs who have to wait until the next morning usually to get agreement from the Premier League. We just didn’t want to announce it as long as it wasn’t officially accepted.”

And that’s always the way a club like Arsenal will work – we’d always wait until it was completed, 100% and signed on the dotted line before announcing it to the world.

Adebayor has been self critical and has talked about his recent form. The Ivorian Togolese said:

“To be honest, no [I am not happy], because I am a striker and I have only scored 12 goals up to now. I know I have missed some chances and need to do a bit more, but that is football – there is no player who scores 10 times out of 10, not even Pele. For me the most important thing is to keep believing that I can do it and keep helping my team-mates to win games. That is what we are here for and I think at the moment I am doing that quite well.”

And he’s right when he says “he needs to do a bit more”. In fact, “do something”, “anything”… is the cry from the fans. Ade’s form has been so poor, many people wonder why we didn’t sell him – well apparently, no one bid for him, that’s why!

Ade’s been talking about the game against Sp*rs on Sunday and had this to day:

“Spurs is always a great occasion – nobody has to motivate you, this comes on its own simply because we are playing Spurs. I hope to do something good and that we can take the three points. It is always great to do that against Spurs, especially for our fans. What is nice about this derby is that it is always a good game on the pitch, regardless of anything off it.”

It will be a great game on Sunday. I won’t be at the game, but the JATmeister will, so I’ll be interested to here how the game goes from the “being there” point of view.

< ![CDATA[quote: "Adebayor has been self critical and has talked about his recent form. The Ivorian said:"

Dev, Ade is Togolese mate! lol]]>

JAT

< ![CDATA[Ade, Pele might not score 10 out of 10, but he would score 10 out of 10 open goals. Sort it out!

As always, looking forward to being bottled and spat on at the WHL dive!]]>

Fabrez

I’m glad Ade is saying he needs to get better…bcuz it’s blatantly & painfully obvious…he’s got 8 goals in his last 8 derbies so we’ll see…i think he’ll score actually. I strongly believe we will win…but we have got to mature in terms of holding on to games bcuz it has cost us important points this season.

Pete

< ![CDATA[Should be a good game! Good to hear Ade speak about his season so far.

As an aside, The Guardian has an interview with Eboue, which made for an interesting read. It can be found here:

< ![CDATA[This weekend is so pivotal.
We need Villa to lose and we need to win - simple!!]]>

Fabrez

< ![CDATA[Really interesting story there Pete...Eboue took that hard...but i guess the family spirit is still in the team which is great! Even better story is Cesc possibly back in 3 weeks! THREE!!! lol

skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_4903146,00.html]]>

Berth

< ![CDATA[A friend of my a Chelsea fan told me that Arsenal could go above Chelsea and Liverpool in the league.

He went on to say add Rosicky, Eduardo, Arshavin, Fab and Walcot, then you see that your team is not doing badly. I then asked what about our defence, is it not obvious we are week. He gestured partially and said,
" at the moment, for your team, the best form of defending is to attack".

We both laughed, wished ourselves the best of weekends and left.

Why I raise this issue is because of the word hope. I know we have hoped a lot in the past few years, but I must say we really have to hope more, get ourselves behind the team, Ade especially. We need to now start singing good songs at the Emirate, songs that inspire players, songs that could make players want to kill an opponent just to get the ball at the back of the net.

We need that hope, so am calling on all of us to try our best to give our team assurance that we are behind them, even just for the sake of those players doing well.]]>

Debs

< ![CDATA[That is amazing news about Fabregas, Fabrez! (haha, just noticed that the first 5 letters of ur name are the same as Fabregas' lol)

And Berth, well said. I agree wholeheartedly!]]>

Berth

This Villa. Is it that the team is too good, or they ve a good manager or right balance in the team?

Debs

good manager, right balance in the team, no doubt, but I swear Lady Luck’s been spending too much time at Villa Park!!!

Debs

Wow. Villa up to third. Looks like it might even be Chelsea that will be battling to stay in the top 4, if we can do our part by winning our games. We’ve got to got to win 2moro, no doubt! A draw isn’t going to cut it!

Fabrez

lol Debs! My “name” is Cesc inspired…i must admit lol And agreed Berth…gotta support the boys thru thick n thin…keep the faith. Frustrating at times but we’re real fans rite! And Villa…r frustrating me!!! Another win…O’Neil is doin a gr8 job on a decent team…i’m slowly starting to worry a bit about 4th…still believe we will finish above them seeing that we should have a beast of run for the rest of the season. C’mon Gunners!

Fabrez

A bit more stable defensively…and creative players coming back to boost us offensively can only be a good thing…a draw definitely not on 2morro!

Debs

It would be a shame if Man U simply coasted to the title, but Liverpool and Chelsea don’t look like challenging at all! Villa seem to be making the most of it, but they’ll inevitably drop off as the season comes to a close, or so we wish! I do feel that if we hadn’t been ‘blessed’ by injuries, we’d have been serious contenders. Maybe when the guys all come back from injury, (not too far off now yay!) we’ll make a solid charge upwards, and maybe man u’ll start dropping points but it just seems at the moment that the title is theirs to lose!

Debs

Lol Fabrez! I should have guessed, seeing as you’ve got a mini Cesc-obsession! lol

Pete

< ![CDATA[Thanks for that Cesc article Fabrez, it put a smile on my face lol :) It's incredible, just think we could have Cesc, Eduardo and Theo back in the first team by the end of the month! Lets just hope they'll be fresh and we'll have no more serious injury concerns.

I actually think Aston Villa will finish the season in the top 4, because in all honestly, so far they deserve it. I do, however, think that we will also finish with Champions League qualification too, and the fact that Chelsea are faultering, that Liverpool have their main player out for 3 weeks, is an encouraging sign for us, but we can need to capitalise by winning and gaining points. If we win tomorrow, we'll be 3 points behind Chelsea, who just happen to play Villa in their next league game.

Admitedly, its not been the perfect season for us so far, we're all too familiar with the frustrations of being an Arsenal supporter sometimes. But considering the drama thats gone on, the captainsy issue, injuries to key players, bad performances etc, I'm amazed that I can realistically say a top 4 spot, an FA Cup or Champions League win isn't beyond the squad we have now. If everyone steps up, and if no more injuries occur, then this might turn out to be a good season for us afterall.]]>

Debs

Yeah Pete, spot on! The return of those players, including Arshavin, should be enough to see us safely into the top 4, one would think, but I’m well excited about the rest of the season, starting with a fantastic win against Sp*rs 2moro!

Berth

liverpool are a goal down at the moment.

Gooner Get Ya

< ![CDATA[I dont think Villa will end the season in the top 4 looking at their fixtures they will lose at least 4 games before the end of the season.

Come on you gooners, lets show the Sp*rs how to play football tomorrow.]]>

Debs

Amazing comeback from Liverpool, although they should not have been in that situation in the first place, if Rafa had gotten his selection right! But at least someone’s ‘challenging’ man u at the moment…

Fabrez

lol @ “mini Cesc-obsession” (he is my fav player after all!) And no worries Pete…that article had me quite happy as well! If Liverpool lost that game, it would have been bcuz of team selection indeed… Torres looks in good form actually. But yeah…focus is on for 2morro!

Jimmy

Good news about Cesc, his doctor was asked if he could be able to play Roma in three weeks and he said i think so, this would be great for us.

Debs

Gosh I’ve actually missed Fabregas a lot though. Can’t wait for him to be back, all of the injured guys actually… Can’t wait for the real squad to be back.

Ive just read that in the summer Cesc RVP and Adebayor will leave if we don’t qualify for the champions league and whether this is true or not it pisses me off when players say they will leave if we dont win or qualify for something, are they stupid? They are the only ones who at the end of the day can influence results as they are the ones playing.

Fabrez

I hopr not AJ…as i said b4, if AC Milan can keep their players (and attract the likes of Ronaldinho, Beckaham) playing Uefa Cup, y can’t we keep ours if we have 1 rough season? Granted AC has a richer history than we do & are considered a bigger club too…but it’s up 2 the boys in terms of commitment & loyalty…we shall see! Let’s stay positive and hope these very players play a big part in turning things around this season.

Fabrez

Another way to deal with what u have read is remembering the old cliché…”don’t believe everything u read!” Sometimes ppl have their personal motives & make up stories…

Debs

< ![CDATA[yeah, apparently Barca are interested in all 3, and supposedly offered cash+Hleb for Robin last month!
The best thing is to develop a thick skin to media reports and only believe what the players or the club actually say. But definitely, it's a possibility, but no point worrying about it now. We've got a game to enjoy today :)]]>

http://kierandelaney.net/blog kierandelaney.net/blog

< ![CDATA[The one thing that worries me about Cesc is he still hasn't made much attempt at spreading his roots and settling in. He still lives in a 2 bed penthouse flat on his money!! I'd have a mansion in Hampshire! It makes me think that maybe he doesn't plan on sticking around?

And anybody else think Beckham would have been a good sign for Arsenal? Apparently there were talks about it at one point but Arsen decided not to upset the balance of the team - remember this was agreed in all but paper last September.

He's been immense at Milan so far and seeing him in midfield instead of Eboue would have bought tears to the eyes.

We pulled a mature England legend in with David Platt!

Pipe dream but I wonder if Wenger knew then what he knows now (Walcotts injury etc) he would have made a different decision?]]>

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